Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1052

 1032 SPERCHEIUS. drawiiicr is generally in the best style of Aegyptian art. They represent various events in the lite of Keoopth. From the tomb of Eotei, indeed, might be conijjiled a very copious record of the domestic life of the Aegyptians. On its walls are depicted, among many others, the following subjects : the return of warriors with their captives; wrestlers; hunting wild beasts and deer; the Kile boats, in- cluding the Bari or high-prowed barge, and fisheries ; granaries and tlas-dressing; spinning and weaving; games with the lance, the ball, and the discus; and the rites of sepulture. The tomb of Amenheme is covered also with representations of men in various postures of wrestling; and tlie other grottoes are not less interesting for their portraitures of civil and domestic life. (Wilkinson, Modern Egypt and Thebes; Rosellini, ^[on. Civ. vol. i.; Kenrick. .4«e. Efjiipi, vol. i. p. 47, foil.) [W.B.D.] SPERCHEIUS {■2.TTepxii6s: Ellddha), a river in the S. of Thessaly, rising in Jlount Tymphrestus (Strab. ix. p. 433), and flowing into the Maliac gulf. The Dryopes and Aenianes dwelt in the upper part of its course till it entered the plain of Mails, through which it flowed to the sea. In ancient times it joined the sea at Anticyra; and the rivers Dyras, Melas, and Asopus fell separately into the sea to the S. of the Spercheius. (Herod, vii. 198.) But the Spercheius has changed its course, and now falls into the sea much further south, about a mile from Thermopylae. The Dyras and Melas now unite their streams, and fall into the Spercheius, as does also the Asopus. [Thermopylae.] Spercheius is celebrated in mythology as a river-god [Z)/cf. of Bio(fi: s. t'.], and is mentioned in connection with Achilles. (Horn. //. xvii. 142.) Its name also frequently occurs in the other poets. (Aesch. Pers. 486; Sophocl. Phil 722; Virg. Georg. ii. 485; Lucan, vi. 366.) (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 8, 11, 15.) Sl'ERCHIAE, a place in Thessaly, which, accord- ing to the description of Livy (xxsii. 13), would seem to have been situated at no great distance from the s(jurces of the Spercheius. Ptolemy (iii. 13. § 17) mentions a place Spercheia between Echinus and Thebes in Phthiotis ; and Pliny (iv. 7. s. 13) jilaces Sperchios in Doris. It is probable that these three names indicate the same place, but that its real positi'in was unknown. SPHACTE'KIA. [Pylus.] SPHAE'RIA. [Calaureia.] SPH.^'GIAE. [Pylus.] SPHENDALE. [Attica, p. 330, a.] SPHENTZANIUJI, a place in Dalmatia, SE. of the road from Scodra to Naissus. (Ann. Conui. 9. p. 252). Probably the modern Pecc«»in. [T. H. D.] SPHETTUS. [Attica, p. 332, b.] SPHI'NGIUM. [Boeotia, p. 412, a.] SPINA (27riVa, Strab.; STrr^/a, Steph. B. : Eth. 'S.TTii'o.Tris and Sttii/i'tt)?), an ancient city of Ital}', situated near the southernmost mouth of the Padus, within the limits of Gallia Cisalpina. It was, accord- ing to Dionysius, a Pela.-^gic settlement, and one of the most flourishing cities founded by that people in Italy, enjoying for a considerable time the dominion of the Adriatic, and deriving great wealth from its commercial relations, so that the citizens had a treasury at Delphi, which they adorned with costly offerings. They were subsequently expelled from their city by an overwhelming force of barbarians, and compelled to abandon Italy. (Dionys. i. 18, 28.) Strabo gives a simDar account of the naval SPOLETIUM. greatness of Spina, as well as of its treasury at Delphi ; but he calls it a Greek (Hellenic) city; and Stylax, who notices only Greek, or reputed Greek, cities, mentions Spina apparently as such. Its Greek origin is confirmed also by Justin, whose authority, however, is not worth much. (Strab. v. p. 214, ix. p. 421 ; Scyl. p. 6. § 19; Justin, xx. 1 ; Plin. iii. 16. s. 20.) But these authorities, as well as the fact that it had a treasury at Delphi, which is undoubteilly historical, seem to exclude the suppo.sition that it was an Etruscan city, like the neighbouring Adria ; and whatever be the foundation of the story of the old Pelasgic settlement, there seems no reason to doubt that it was really a Greek colony, though we have no account of the period of its establishment. Scy- lax alludes to it as still existing in his time: hence it is clear that the barbarians who are said by Dio- nysius to have driven out the inhabitants, can be no other than the neighbouring Gauls ; and that the period of its destruction was not very long before the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul by the Romans. It does not appear to have ever been rebuilt or become a Roman town. Strabo speaks of it as in his time a mere village ; and Pliny repeatedly alludes to it as a place no longer in existence. (Plin. iii. 16. s. 20, 17. s. 21 ; Str.ib. v. p. 214.) No subsequent trace of it is found, and its site has never been ascertained. We know, however, that it must have been situated on or near the southernmost arm of the Padus, which derived from it the name of Spineticum Ostiuji, and which probably corresponded with the modern Po di Primaro. [Padus.] But the site of Spina must now be sought far from the sea : Strabo tells us that even in his time it was 90 stadia (11 miles) from the coast ; though it was said to have been originally situated on the sea. It is probably now 4 or 5 miles further inland ; but the changes which have taken place in the channels of the rivers, as well as the vast accumulations of alluvial soil, render it almost hopeless to look for its site. Pliny tells us that the Spinetic branch of the Padus was the one which was otherwise called Eridanus ; but it is probable that this was merely one of the attempts to connect the mythical Eridanus with the actual Padus, by applying its name to one particular branch of the existing river. It is, however, probable that the Spinetic channel was, in very early times, one of the principal mouths of the river, and much more considerable than it afterwards became. [Pa- dus.] [E. H. B.] SPINAE, a place in Britannia Romana, E. of Aqua Sulis {Bath), {[tin. Ant. pp. 485, 486.) Now the village of Spene near Netvhurg in Berlcshire, which has its name of new in regard to Spinae, the ancient borough. (Camden, p. 166.) [T. H. D.] SPIRAEUM (Plin. iv. 5. s. 9) or SPEIRAEUM (Ptol. iii. 16. § 12), a promontory on the eastern coast of Peloponnesus upon the confines of the terri- tories of Corinth and Epidaurus. For details, see Vol. I. p. 685, a. SPOLETIUM (27rcoA.7iTioi/ : Eth. Spoletinus : Spoleto), a city of Umbria, situated between In- tenimna {Teriii) and Trebia {Trevi), about 9 miles S. of the sources of the Clitumnus. Its name is not mentioned in history as an Umbrian town, nor have we any account cf its existence previous to the establishment of the Roman colony, which was settled there in b. c. 240, just after the close of the First Punic War (Liv. Epit. xx.; Veil. Pat. i. 14). It was a Colonia Latina, and its name is re- peatedly mentiuued during the Second Punic Wai-.